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Xu Yanling (37).
Sec 1 Faith
NORTHWEST IRAN – On 21st June 1990, 12.30a.m, the area of the Caspian Sea was struck by one of the worst earthquakes in Iran history.
The Majil Rudbar earthquake was one of the largest strike-slip earthquakes to ever occur in an intercontinental setting. The earthquake occurred when the crustal plates were moving in opposite directions and had faults at their edges, causing them to become locked together. Kinetic energy is then built up and once the plates gave in, it released a killer quake.
The magnitude of the quake ranged from 7.3-7.7 on the Richter scale. There were 40,000 fatalities, 60,000 injured and 500,000 unfortunate victims left homeless. The three cities, Majil, Rudbar, Lushan, 700 other villages were destroyed and another three hundred villages badly affected. However, the main shock was not the primary cause. Two strong aftershocks, both with a magnitude of 6.2 and 6.5 respectively, 400 weaker shocks, landslides, fires which occurred later furthered the number of casualties.
Out of the many buildings damaged, the worst were the dams and power plants. Chances for floods were heightened and energy supplies were cut. The Iranian government was badly overwhelmed and their rescue efforts had not been able to reach many villages. They rushed to fix dams and gather supplies and had even accepted the help of the United States, which they were not on good terms with.
(the rescue efforts)I feel that Iran was not prepared enough for the quakes. Firstly, low quality materials, workmanship and unstable soil led their buildings to become weak. The public lacked preparedness for what to do before and after the earthquake struck and for the rescue operation to operate smoothly. There would be a large hazard reduction if there were early detection and post earthquake rehabilitation measures. This way, more lives would be spared and Iran would recover more rapidly from this ordeal.
Bibliography:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001439.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Manjil-Rudbar_earthquake
http://freethoughts.org/archives/000389.php
http://www.asiaoceania.org/abstract/se/58-SE-A0117.pdf
http://www.eeri.org/lfe/pdf/iran_1990_newsletter.pdf
http://www.coe.neu.edu/Depts/CIV/faculty/myegian/library/EERI%20newsletter0001.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m33l856g505r4026/ http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Earthquake http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4286129.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/earthquake_guide.pdf http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/where.html
http://www.newprophecy.net/Thousands_die_in_Iran_quake.jpg.jpg
